Post navigation

DoFollow Spam and Other Comment Type Improvements

Within the last several months there’s been a change in the comment spam that’s plagued bloggers ever since the dregs of society first found out how they could benefit from leaving their crap in the comment sections of posts. You know the type; 20 offers for prescription medications along with another 15 offers to “stiffen our resolve” as it were.

These “spamments” used to be left by spam bots (the spammers got lazy in other words) but recently it seems humans have gotten back into it since anti-spam type plugins have become so effective. So now I’ve been getting these types of spamments of late (not all of them have been this good but there’s been quite a few):

I’m not really sure we would all be in trouble that quickly…let me explain. Let’s assume they did actually come up with a drug that did extend peoples lives to 100 years old. Well, you know it would be under patent, so for 17.5 years, it would be expensive as gold, so only the rich could afford it. Even after the patent expired, the generic version would probably be expensive, so probably only the middle class in developed countries would be able to afford it. So, at least we would have a little bit of time before the world population numbers started exploding.

But, unfortunately, the ultimate effect of something like this would be to send the population number sky high. Could you imagine a world with 20 billion people in it? It’s possible…with life extension.

This one I found lurking in the comments section of a couple posts back. It was left by a guy called “Electronic Cigarettes”. Now that’s a fairly well thought out comment, the type of comment I’d be glad to see here at Just Thinkin’–but not by some guy named “Electronic Cigarettes”.

And he’s not the first, not by a long shot but rather than getting into a long dissertation about the other types of sweet smelling human generated garbage comments that keep coming my way, I’ve decided to finally make some changes here.

I’ve turned off “DoFollow” for this blog. It’s become a spam magnate for these new types of spamment. Don’t know how much simpler I can put it than that. Every time I leave the plugin activated lately I end up with a dozen or so of the above type comments per day and it pains me to dump some of them (like the one above) simply because they’re so good. However, if I deactivate the plugin, within a few days these types of “spamments” stop coming. So after many weeks of deliberation and arguing with myself—off she goes and I’m really sorry about that.

But not to leave everyone in the lurch I’ve added the CommentLuv plugin to my repertoire of WordPress plugins for everyone’s enjoyment. I’ve seen this thing in action every time I stop by Sixty’s or Grandad’s place of business and I thought this might be a fine way to make up for having to turn off the link Luv so to speak.

And last but not least, there’s this:

I also followed Grandad on this one and installed the TinyMCEComments plugin in order to fancy up my comments box. Unfortunately it has a slight problem with CommentLuv in that if CommentLuv’s check box is checked before the website field in the comment form is filled in, CommentLuv won’t work. If that’s what happens to you then just recheck the box and all is well and I left a little reminder about this down below the comment form.

Post navigation

Comments

DoFollow Spam and Other Comment Type Improvements — 14 Comments

This TinyMCE yoke is nice, and does make commenting easier. It is inclined to screw up though as it all depends on how your CSS handles, for example lists. In my case, things got very messy, so I just removed the list options from the TinyMCE menu. Works a treat!
.-= Grandad´s last blog ..How green can you get? =-.

Grandad – I had put in a support ticket to CommentLuv about TinyMCEComments arguing with CommentLuv and having to check the box after blah, blah, blah and it turns out that TMC puts the comment box into an iFrame so CL won’t pick up when the cursor is placed into the comment field itself. The work around is making sure you check the CL check box after the website field is filled in hence my little disclaimer. They also stated that because of this CL won’t ever be fully compatible with TMC.

I’ll take the chance that most folks are smart enough to read the disclaimer? I mean, you did. 😉

Elaine – Sure they can comment but if they don’t have a website then they really shouldn’t be checking the CL check box but it won’t matter if they do–nothing to retrieve (you know, like when they attempted to take an EKG down at the VA–nothing to retrieve).

Blogmaster? Hey…I like that. Gives that god awful word “blog” some self respect it does. Of course it still sounds a bit like a job title meaning “someone who is in charge of a heath”. 😛

I checked and nope, you don’t have a DoFollow type plugin installed. You could try CommentLuv since you wouldn’t have the problem me and Grandad do since you don’t use the TMC plugin (you know what geeks we we can be). 😉

That auld fella, Grandad, is always on top the plugin happenings. CommentLuv and TinyMCE are excellent and must have plugins (I’m behind on me plugin-ness.) . WordPress has its issues, but you can’t beat open source products. 🙂

JD – Hey, welcome and all that. And I agree, the open source idea is great and besides, any software is buggy. It’s just a pain in the butt when you have to pay for it (never knew ol’ Linus was so open minded).

just tuning in after lengthy abscence…..I have no earthly idea what ya’ll are talking about.I’ve walked into a scene of another century or world,maybe the drugs are really hitting me!Per instructions to Elaine,I won’t check CL as I have nothing to retrieve (literally!)Hope you all have been well,will take me a bit to get caught up on all your posts and will have to try to catch up to grandad too,but hell,he goes so fast I’ll probably have to join him in progress.

Hi Sandi – Welcome back and don’t worry about having to catch up. I’ve had plenty of times recently where I was away for lengthy periods of time and those times maybe fewer now but they’re not over yet.

Don’t worry about what the post was about since it only applies to us boneheads who have WordPress powered sites (we have a tendency to be gluttons for punishments 🙂 ).

And Grandad moves too quickly even for those in the best of health. Don’t know how he does it.

Grandad – Why, in whatever it is you do of course. And you do so much of it I have to admit she’s right. Miss a few days of making the rounds and all of a sudden you’re ten posts ahead of everyone else…with the possible exception of Sixty. But then again in Sixty’s case quality isn’t everything? 😛

Wisdom

Semi-Wisdom

Sanity seldom requires an outlet but insanity always demands to be heard.